Under current US immigration policy, an ISIS terrorist doesn’t need to hop a fence or swim a river to reach America. He can enter the US legally as a student, as a skilled guest-worker, as a refugee, as an entrepreneur, or as a tourist – and fly here in the comfort of a jumbo jet. According to US Census data, the US welcomes about 100,000 Muslim immigrants legally each year. This represents the fastest growing segment of immigrants coming to America. While some may enter with questionable backgrounds, the chances are greater that they will get radicalized after they arrive.

Take the case of Chattanooga terrorist Youssef Mohammad Abdulazeez. He arrived with his parents from Kuwait in 1996 at the age of 6. He attended US schools, and by all accounts was a fully assimilated US naturalized citizen. Abdulazeez was a success story just waiting to be told by Obama’s newly created White House Taskforce on New Americans, which collaborates with community-organizing groups like Welcoming America to convince Americans that expansive immigration brings only good things to their cities and towns.

But something happened over the last two years of Abdulazeez’s life that changed him. Last year, at the age of 23, he traveled to Jordan and Yemen for seven months, and US intelligence agencies aren’t sure who he visited or what he may have been taught while visiting the Middle East. FBI Director James Comey’s dire warning to Congress several weeks before the Chattanooga attack now seems prophetic because it applies perfectly to young Muslims like Abdulazeez.

The message of ISIS to Western recruits is this: “Come to the so-called caliphate, and if you can’t, kill somebody. Kill somebody where you are,” Comey said. “He told them, with obviously deep concern, that his agency is simply incapable of managing the threats now proliferating across the entire country,” said Clare Lopez, vice president of research and analysis for the Center for Security Policy and a former CIA analyst.

The skyscraper has carried out the tradition “for several years now — it is an annual lighting,” a building spokeswoman told AFP.

The Empire State Building famously shines specific colors for a number of religious holidays — pastel shades for Easter, blue and white for Hanukkah, and red and green for Christmas.

It also has marked a number of events — red, white and blue for the US women’s World Cup victory, rainbow colors for gay Pride Week, and blue, white and purple for World Oceans Day on June 8. The tower is otherwise illuminated in white each night.

Deeper fiscal integration in the eurozone is a "huge mistake" that could end up tearing the bloc apart, Sweden's former finance minister has warned. Anders Borg said forcing countries to cede sovereignty could trigger a right-wing backlash across Europe, as he predicted that countries such as Sweden and Poland, which are obliged to join the euro, would not adopt the single currency for "decades".

"If you go for tighter co-operation that basically brings higher taxes to the north to subsidise the south, you build in a political divide that is not sustainable in the long term," he said.

The difference is that World War II was a war declared under Article I, Section 8, Clause II of the Constitution whereas the war on terror is undeclared and thus illegal. Clark is in essence advocating a life sentence for people who have not committed a crime but merely engaged in speech — often reprehensible, yet constitutionally protected — the government considers radical and in opposition to its foreign policy.

The Bush administration declared the war on terror would last a generation or more. Senior officials with the Obama administration meanwhile have said — when formulating “disposition matrix” to determine how terrorism suspects will be disposed of — they had reached a “broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade” or more. Clark’s remarks reveal the mindset of the upper echelon of government. Those who disagree with the government are now to be rounded up and shut up indefinitely in political internment camps.

Mass internment of official enemies on par with Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union is now “on the table” and openly discussed as suspicious attacks and FBI orchestrated and grandstanded terror plots continue to grab headlines and build a reactionary consensus as the designed result of an incessant, decades-long propaganda campaign.

As LifeNews reported, Dr Nucatola tells actors posing as buyers from a human biologics company, StemExpress, that Planned Parenthood charges per-specimen for baby body parts and is aware of their own liability for doing so. She also explains that some body parts, such as livers and heads, are much more popular and go for a higher price than other specimen.

After considerable international outrage over the video, StemExpress took down its web site — putting it in “maintenance mode.” Now, the web site is back up and anyone can purchase body parts from babies Planned Parenthood kills in abortions. In a flyer from Stem Express, they describe their business as “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to biomedical researchers.”

Then they encourage organizations to pursue their business because they can help them implement programs that bring in financial profits. The Federalist points out that the Stem Express flyer even quotes a Planned Parenthood official who endorses their business. StemExpress makes a considerable amount of money selling the aborted baby body parts. It sells fetal liver cells from anywhere between $488 to $24,250.

Before the Temple can rise, builders must secure a red heifer, or “para aduma,” a three-year-old female cow with totally red hair that is supposed to be able to restore a state of “purity” after ritual slaughter. The Temple Institute, an Israeli organization dedicated to constructing the Third Temple, has launched a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo to breed such animals and has already succeeded in accumulating almost $15,000 in three days.

The group’s previous campaign in 2014 succeeded in raising more than $100,000 to pay for the creation of construction plans that meet both architectural and Scriptural standards. The group admits red heifers are not uncommon around the world, but claims a “para aduma” suitable for ritual use actually must be raised in Israel and meet painstaking specifications laid out in Scripture.

Yet the fierce debate over the Third Temple and its importance for the contemporary world does not detract from a shared sense among many commentators of prophecy being realized in the modern world. Noting what he sees as the rise of global immorality, ominous signs of war in the Middle East, and the return of the state of Israel, Carl Gallups - pastor, talk-show host and author - enthuses, “The solid signs of Jesus’ soon return are all around us.”

And Joel Richardson - filmmaker, evangelist and best-selling author - believes Christians are going to be forced to confront their deepest held beliefs about the end times sooner rather than later. “If the Christian church seems divided now, imagine the great controversy in the days ahead when the third Jewish Temple is rebuilt. Those days are indeed coming and coming quickly.”

Excuse the slightly strange introduction to this week’s column. I don’t know why but when I read this week about the tourists queuing round the block for days at a time to snap up prime London real estate, this song started playing in my head. The flats, which started at £350,000 for a studio, sold out within four hours, with half of the buyers living overseas; many of the purchasers of Maine Tower’s “elite lifestyle services” have never seen the plot on which the 41-storey skyscraper will be built. But who cares what it looks like, as long as your money is safely invested out of your own faltering economy?

More likely, they’ve got bored and decided to gamble on real estate in another part of the property playground they never plan to inhabit. Meanwhile, local people are priced further and further out, unable to live in the land they call home.

In a capital city where so many cannot afford their own homes, and so soon after housing benefit was taken away from the already much-maligned young, it seems obscene to learn that vast swathes of it are being bought up by rich foreigners who will probably leave their luxury apartments empty because renting harms the property’s market value.

Up to 200,000 Germans are believed to have filed official declarations last year renouncing their membership of the Protestant church, the highest number in almost two decades. A similar number are thought to have left the Catholic Church. Church members in Germany are required by law to pay tax to fund church activities, which is collected by the government.

Under German law, anyone who was baptised as a child is automatically a member of the church and obliged to pay the tax, charged as a percentage of their income, regardless of their beliefs or whether they attend church services. Until recently, many Christians have been prepared to pay the extra tax for the benefits it brings them, including access to church schools and day care facilities that are funded by the state.

A decision to extend the 8 or 9 per cent charge to capital gains income, or the profit earned from selling an asset, appears to have sparked the sharp decline in church membership. The new tax regulation was “just the straw that broke the camel’s back for people who were already thinking of leaving”, Ruth Levin, spokesman for the Protestant church in Disnlaken, told Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

Around 30.8 per cent of Germans, or 24.7 million people, are Catholics, according to the 2011 census, while 30.3 per cent, or 24.3 million people, are Protestants.

Our government's incessant tightening of already restrictive Rules of Engagement, compounded by the failed COIN (Counterinsurgency) strategy — also known as "winning hearts and minds," has made an otherwise primitive enemy formidable.

Our best and brightest come home in body bags as politicians and lawyers dine over white linen tablecloths; writing, modifying, and re-modifying these lethal rules… rules that favor the enemy rather than the American soldier. Rules so absurd they're difficult to believe until you hear the same stories over and again from those returning from battle. In a delicate discussion with an Army Ranger who recently left the military, we heard the following: "I had to get out. I have a family who needs me. I didn't join to be sacrificed. I joined to fight."

This decision came shortly after he lost a close friend to the Rules of Engagement. He went on to explain: the Taliban had attempted an ambush on his friend's squad, but quickly realized they were in a battle they couldn't win and began retreating. While chasing them, the US soldiers were ordered not to engage due to the slight chance the Taliban had laid down their arms as they ran through some type of shack. While arguing with leadership at the JOC (Joint Operations Center) his friend was shot and killed.

However, today's war fighters have the grave misfortune of serving leaders who elevate the virtues of inaction over action. The message? If you dare use your training or your gut instinct, if you have the fortitude to fight for your life, or the desire to kill the enemy, there is a good chance you will be punished. The physiological capacities of a true patriot cannot tolerate the vile stench of injustice, especially when perpetrated against those who defend us. Its wretched aroma permeates the core and demands a response.

The drought, now in its 16th year, has made one fact brutally clear: The Colorado cannot continue to meet the current urban, agricultural, hydroelectric and recreational demands on it — and the point at which the river will fall short could come sooner than anyone thought.

Few rivers are asked to work as hard as the Colorado. Ranchers in western Colorado use the river to water pastures for beef cattle, while Denver and its suburbs channel it east across the mountains to enable city living. Las Vegas and other southern Nevada communities draw up to 90% of their water from the Colorado. Hoover Dam and others convert its flow into power. After Arizona and California take their share, the river exits — evaporates, really — through the dry remnants of a delta leading to the Gulf of California.

Rice was asked about the money Iran will receive under sanctions relief and how they can use it, she answered that the sanctions were only put in place “to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.” She added, “Our best judgment is, first of all, it’s going to take them quite a while to access that money. And it will take — they won’t be able to get it all at once. They won’t get any of it, not one dime of it, Wolf, unless and until they take the steps that they’ve committed to take to dismantle the bulk of their nuclear program.

"So, they have to take out 2/3ds of their centrifuges. They have to get rid of 98% of their uranium stockpile. They have to render inoperative their plutonium facility. They have to let the IAEA do the inspections and the interviews that are necessary to answer the questions that remain about Iran’s past nuclear activities. Among — they have to let the IAEA in and establish this 24/7 monitoring that I described. All of those steps have to be taken.”

She continued, “And then at that point, the sanctions will be suspended. And Iran will begin to be able to access its frozen accounts around the world. What do we think they’ll spend that money on? We think, for the most part, they’re going to need to spend it on the Iranian people and their economy which has tanked. And Rouhani, the president, was really elected on the hope that he would bring economic relief to the Iranian people.

"But yes, it is real, it is possible, and, in fact, we should expect that some portion of that money would go to the Iranian military and could potentially be used for the kinds of bad behavior that we have seen in the region up until now. But the goal here, Wolf, was never, and was not designed to prevent them from engaging in bad behavior in region. They’re doing that today. The goal is to ensure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon, and therefore, when they are engaging in that bad behavior, are that much more dangerous.”

Now, in what can be described as the opening salvo in another round of the war on Christianity, LGBT activist and liberal journalist Felix Salmon has floated the idea of taking away the tax exempt status of any and all churches that do not support gay marriage.

So there you have it, in the new free and equal America if your church does not support a certain political and religious belief they should be forced to effectively PAY the government a portion of their income and donations.

Perhaps the most telling fact in all this that proves without a doubt that the hard left and their LGBT activist allies specifically and wholeheartedly HATE Christians is that they never mention the horrific treatment gays receive at the hands of other religions such as Islam.

This nation is repeating the disastrous evolutionary process that has plagued so many failed countries throughout mankind’s history. This process begins with a society willing to reject the fundamental concept that is necessary for any nation to thrive and prosper: respect for the uniqueness of each individual and self-determination. Recently the revelation that Planned Parenthood is selling, without a second thought, body parts of aborted human beings for profit is a significant indicator of the depth to which this nation has fallen over the past 45 years.

On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court validated abortion on demand (up to the point of so-called viability) regardless of circumstances. Many of my acquaintances celebrated this decision as a monumental advancement in women’s and societal rights. I, on the other hand, was overcome with a sense of foreboding. I was appalled and openly stated that this nation had embarked on the road of demeaning and devaluing life, which would lead to a society devoid of morality and integrity with the ultimate ascension into power those who would destroy this nation as founded. My warnings fell on deaf ears as I was ridiculed and accused of being an anachronism as these things could never happen in the United States.

As there were few that shared my premonition, I could only watch over the past 42 years as the American people have sanctioned, through legal abortions, the death of over 54.5 million children. Once this disregard of human life took hold, the citizens of this nation were susceptible to wholesale changes within society. Far too many of the American people, flush with prosperity, willfully ignored the infiltration of the education, media and entertainment establishments by the 1960’s radicals, the most narcissistic and radical legion of socialist true-believers on the face of the earth. Through the control of these mediums of indoctrination, an ever increasing percentage of the population has been conditioned to believe there are no moral absolutes and there is a limitless list of rights as granted by the government.

Authorities are investigating whether or not he had any connection to ISIS (which he almost certainly did), but nobody is disputing the fact that he was Muslim. Hopefully this horrific incident will serve as a huge wake up call for millions of Americans. Islamic terrorists are already here – and this is just the beginning of their reign of terror on US soil.

ISIS has made it very clear that they plan to kill as many of us as they possibly can. But most Americans seem very apathetic about this. Perhaps it is because they have been hearing about what a “threat” that “al-Qaeda” was for so many years and yet nothing ever seemed to actually happen.

And of course there are many liberals that have been trained that it is politically incorrect to even use the phrase “Islamic terror”. Following the lead of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other radical leftists, the only “terrorists” that they want to talk about are the “right-wing extremists” that they take great joy in persecuting. Today’s shooting will hopefully shake many Americans out of their politically-induced comas. The threat of Islamic terror inside the United States is greater than it has ever been before.

The statement was tweeted hours after the Chattanooga shooting and after it had been established that the culprit was 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a Kuwaiti Muslim whose blog revealed that Islam played a central role in his ideology. It was only after Obama had lectured Americans about respecting Islam that he paid tribute to the four dead Marines killed by an Islamic terrorist.

Obama has been widely criticized for his refusal to even use the term “Islamic” when referring to Islamist terror attacks, an illustration of the stifling political correctness that surrounds discussion of Islamic-inspired atrocities. In the aftermath of the shootings, the leftist media, which immediately exploited the Charleston attack to collectively demonize all white Americans, is noticeably shy to discuss Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s motivation.